Trapped In A Snowball
by yellowhorde
Summary: Mild Shojo Ai. DR, 1R, When Relena faints just before giving a speech, she is taken to the hospital where she awakens and recieves not one but two bits of devistating news. Feel free to R


Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing and I make no money from this or any fanfic I write. Pairings: 1+R, D+R Category: General/Angst, PWP, Ficlet Rating: PG13 Warnings: Shojo ai Title: Trapped In A Snowball Author: yellowhorde Feel free to send comments/constructive criticism to me at yellowhorde@hotmail.com  
  
TRAPPED IN A SNOWBALL  
  
Relena stood behind the podium facing a sea of unknown faces. Her light brown hair was coiled into a neat bun and she was very prim and proper in her pink designer suit. She looked totally in control of the situation but nothing could be farther than the truth. She was hot and nauseous and she couldn't even remember what her speech was to be about let alone what she was going to say. All of her words had dried up on her tongue, so swollen in her mouth she couldn't speak.  
  
Tiny beads of perspiration beaded her brow and the world began to spin crazily, every face blurring and blending, one into the other. Then she was falling, falling as darkness gobbled up her vision.  
  
From what seemed a great distance she heard Heero's voice calling to her so alarmed. A second later she felt his hands upon her, holding her, protecting her. He spoke urgently to her urgently and for a few moments he unconsciously slipped back into his native Japanese, so worried for her safety he lost his English.  
  
If she had been able to, Relena would have smiled at this small slip because it expressed the extent of his worry. It told her exactly how much she mattered to him, how much he cared.  
  
Eventually even Heero's voice faded away. She drifted away in cool nothingness. For an eternity she floated in a sea of blackness, weightless and free. She was not afraid. No, for here it was calm. Peaceful.  
  
Her first sense to return to her was her hearing, but the voices were soft and muffled, as if spoken under water. Her ears were gradually clearing but she couldn't make out words yet, just sounds. After listening hard she was able to determine that there were two separate voices, both spoken at a low pitch presumably so as not to disturb her. The first voice was low, and rumbling, and obviously male. Soothing and softly spoken as if trying to sooth a frightened child. But this speaker was unknown. The other was familiar but Relena's mind had not cleared enough to remember what face belonged to which voice. Whoever she was, she was angry, her tone full of hot emotions barely in check, just waiting for the chance to leak out and scald the whole world.  
  
"Are you sure about that?" The woman snapped and suddenly Relena knew it was Dorothy speaking to some poor man in her bossy manner.  
  
"I'm positive." Came the reply. "I ran the test three times already."  
  
"Run them again! There must have been some mistake!"  
  
(Dorothy? Why are you so angry?)  
  
The man's voice was heard again, but this time it was inaudible and fading away along with his footsteps, heavy and kind of tired. (He probably said something that wasn't very nice.) Relena concluded as she heard an unseen door open then close. But then knowing Dorothy, she couldn't say she was surprised. She did come out sounding so blunt and pushy at times.  
  
A faint sigh was heard followed by the rustling of fabric, which seemed so loud in the silence. Realizing that they were alone, Relena opened her eyes - they felt so heavy! - and saw Dorothy sitting next to her in a stiff, uncomfortable looking chair. Her eyes were red rimmed, her face pale. She looked very tired and dispirited.  
  
Relena slowly pulled herself into a sitting position and glanced around the room and was mildly surprised to see that she was in some sort of hospital room. The walls, the sheets, the bedding, everything was all white and sterile looking, empty of every trace of personality. It was like looking out into a snowstorm or being trapped in a snowball.  
  
"How are you doing, Relena?" Dorothy asked, leaning forward to run long fingers through her hair, pushing strands back from Relena's forehead.  
  
"Fine." Relena rasped and was alarmed at how she sounded. (That's not my voice! How long have I been here?)  
  
Mutely, she watched as Dorothy turned and reached for a pink plastic carafe on a small table besides her that Relena had failed to notice in her first sweep of the room. The table, an imitation oak nightstand, was covered with get-well cards and colorful flowers, enough to open a flower shop! How in the world had she managed to miss it?  
  
Dorothy silently held out a cup that matched the carafe. Moisture beads trickled down its smooth pink sides. Smiling gratefully, Relena took a careful sip. The water was cold, cold enough to make her teeth ache. It slid down her parched throat and exploded in her empty stomach like an iceberg smashing through the hull of some luckless ship. Frozen fingers danced through her body, but she couldn't tell whether it was the water that brought on this reaction or her budding sense of trepidation.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
Dorothy looked at her for so long, her body and face still as if carved from stone. Relena wanted to run and hide from the look in those eyes. So much hurt was trapped inside them, so much disappointment. She meant to ask that question, but it had leaped from her mouth before she could stop it. She needed to know.  
  
"You fainted." Dorothy replied softly. "And you hit your head on the podium pretty hard when you fell. The doctor was afraid you might have a concussion."  
  
At this news Relena's hand flew to the bandages on her forehead as if becoming aware of them for the first time. The dull throbbing had been there all along just waiting for her to notice.  
  
"They want to keep you overnight for observation." Dorothy concluded simply, taking the now empty glass from Relena's hand and setting it back on the flower-strewn table.  
  
"Oh." Relena nodded her head slowly as if Dorothy's answer had explained everything. It didn't. It only left more questions in its wake.  
  
"But. I." She felt so flustered and it was nearly impossible to think. She had so many questions racing through her mind that they were tripping over themselves in an effort to get out. But in the end all she could ask was, "Why?"  
  
Again Dorothy only looked at her and this time Relena could actually feel the emotions buffeting her from where her friend sat. So much hurt, so much anger. Where was it all coming from?  
  
Time seemed to stop for a long while as Relena met her friend's steely gaze, unable or perhaps unwilling to speak. The air itself became thick and oppressive making it difficult for her to breath. She was suffocating! Drowning in a sea of air!  
  
(Oh, help! Somebody, please! Help!)  
  
It was Dorothy who finally broke the silence. Her voice lashed through the air somehow flat and sharp at the same time. "You're pregnant."  
  
It was more accusation than statement and her blunt words slashed viciously through the confusion of Relena's own thoughts.  
  
Once more silence filled the room. From somewhere deep within the hospital a doctor was being paged.  
  
"I'm.p-pregnant?" Relena echoed faintly. Her hands wanted to fly to her ears and block out those words but she clasped them together hard and forced them to stay in her lap. "How did that happen?" Immediately she realized how ignorant that sounded. "No, wait, stupid question."  
  
Again that frightfully blank mask. Relena felt Dorothy's anger and pain beating down on her, crushing her, a swirling miasma of unhappiness but she just couldn't understand what could possibly have caused it. She was the one who was pregnant, not Dorothy.  
  
Pregnant!  
  
Over and over again that one little word echoed through her mind until she thought she would go mad.  
  
(I'm pregnant.but.)  
  
"How?" Relena murmured to herself, feeling suddenly tired and lost.  
  
Sighing sharply, Dorothy retreated into her uncomfortable chair as far as it would allow. It was as if she was withdrawing into herself, so deep, so far away. She looked so upset and miserable sitting there with her long narrow hands cupping her elbows.  
  
"Who's the father, Relena?"  
  
Relena's cheeks burst into flame chasing away the cold that had invaded her body. She couldn't stop the memories from those nights in the not so distant past that flooded her mind. So dizzyingly intense even now that they set her blood ablaze, made her heart race. All she had to do was think of him and her heart took on wings. His tender kisses haunted her every waking moment, his soft-spoken words of adoration, emotions released that had once been held so close to his heart filled her to completion. The war was over and they were free - free to choose, free to live, free to love.  
  
So many cold winter nights had passed with her safe and warm in his arms. His body pressed against hers, his lips caressing, devouring, teaching her, urging her to surrender. Together they were schooled in the ways of love, of fierce desire, of raging passion. And now.  
  
"Who was it?" Dorothy's sharp voice cut through Relena's most secret thoughts, shattering the warmth that had surrounded her, shielded her. The cold came rushing back with a vengeance, its grip now as strong as steel.  
  
Dorothy stood abruptly and wooden chair legs dragged noisily across the floor in her haste. She glared at her, her blue eyes blazing. Relena had never seen her so angry and it scared her a little to think that she was the cause of such rage.  
  
"Who's the father?"  
  
For some reason she was unable to meet her friend's withering gaze. Relena let her eyes fall to her lap and the hands that wanted to tremble so badly if she would only let them. When she spoke her voice was whisper soft.  
  
"H-Heero." She glanced up almost defiantly and said more firmly, "Heero is the father of my baby."  
  
Dorothy snorted. "I should have known." Then she turned her back on her friend, shoulders straight, spine rigid and began to walk for the door, the heels of her shoes clacking against the tile floor.  
  
(Does she hate Heero that much? Who else could it have been, Dorothy? There has never been anyone else. Surely you more than anyone else knew that! There never will be, not for the rest of my life!)  
  
"Wait, please! Dorothy, what's wrong? Why are you so angry at me?" Relena reached out for her friend with tears in her eyes and was relieved when she turned around as she reached the door.  
  
"I'm not mad at you, Relena. I'm mad at myself." She offered a lopsided half-smile despite the tears in her own eyes. "I think you should tell him, Relena. Tell Heero the good news." Her voice trembled only slightly but her eyes were over bright and her hands clenched into fists at her sides.  
  
Abruptly she turned to go but as her hand gripped the doorknob she stopped. She never turned around and her voice, though very quiet, carried perfectly to Relena's ears.  
  
"You're a fool, Relena Darlian Peacecraft. The biggest fool I've ever met. But I love you. I just wanted you to know that. And I won't stand in the way of your happiness."  
  
Then she was gone and the silence that settled in her wake was almost unbearable. Long hours after Dorothy's footfalls had faded away to nothing, Relena lay awake in her white bed in her white sterile room with her white hands covering her even whiter face. Too shocked by what she had heard to do more than stare at the door with eyes that couldn't possibly be any wider than they were right at that moment.  
  
THE END  
  
Note: I'm not terribly pleased with the title but it was the only one that wanted to stick in my head. Does anyone have any suggestions? 


End file.
